In the aquarium prior arts significant attention has been given to the observation of fishlife by human observers. Some typical patented art is thus now discussed. Such structures as the wall mountable aquarium of U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,336, issued to V. Murphy Apr. 1, 1975 or the prismatic shaped aquarium of U.S. Pat. No. 3,696,789 issued to E. Richard Oct. 10, 1972 represent typical aquarium features providing visual aids to the observer. Respectively a wall mounted bubble type aquarium extends outwardly from a flat wall and the aquarium is prismatically shaped to produce light interference patterns. Such art is for small private aquarium structure to be viewed in a home or the like, and produces undesirable reflections and interference with the fishlife view in the viewing interface.
Special purpose aquarium viewing structure as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 1,764,356 to E. Schlotz June 17, 1930 provides an optical system for introduction into the observer's view of entertainers located behind the aquarium viewing panel of a public aquarium.
Aquarium art constructed for lighted observation through viewing panels is represented by the U.S. Pat. Nos.: 1,974,068 to I. Greensaft Sept. 18, 1934 and 2,595,085 to F. Kuriyama Apr. 29, 1952. The framing or decorative effect of a small room sized aquarium is of prime interest in this type of aquarium art without removal of interfering reflections or images from the surface of the windows in the viewing interface.
Clearly, with the accent upon decor, the most important reason for having aquariums is lost in such prior art, namely the unimpeded visibility of the fishlife behavior in its natural habitat. Little attention thus has been addressed to the requirements for human observation under best conditions at large public aquariums. Nor, has the effect of aquarium construction upon fishlife activity and health, or upon aquarium maintenance been given attention. For example, if bright sun-light is maintained outside the aquarium, that undesirably tends to breed algae if it is directed on the aquarium windows. Such algae inhibits viewing and need be cleaned off inside window surfaces of the aquarium. Clearly the critical nature of water-to-window-to-air interfaces in aquariums at the viewing window is critical and prior art aquariums are not ideally constructed for an unimpeded view through aquarium viewing windows of fishlife in its natural habitat.
Furthermore prior art aquarium construction does not consider the construction cost and maintenance cost of the viewing interface between the water, glass and air media.
These problems are more profound because of the preference of human observers to be in a high ambient light environment, which because of the reflection qualities of window surfaces greatly interferes with the ability of the human eye to observe the details of fishlife, particularly residing in subdued light conditions preferred as a habitat inside some aquariums. Subdued light in the observer's quarters is undesirable because of the possibility of observers falling or bumping into unobserved obstacles in the public aquarium environment.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide improved aquariums, and the like, for viewing animal life, which resolves these problems in the prior art.
It is a more specific object of this invention to provide public aquarium structure with an improved viewing interface between the fishlife and the observer permitting clearer vision into the aquarium from a brightly lighted exterior.